Manga and Comic Reviews
Where the volumes of “Star Wars” and “Darth Vader” that bore the “Crimson Reign” subtitle had only nominal ties to the organization and its ongoing storyline, “Doctor Aphra’s” are a bit more substantial. In part because this volume’s main storyline involves the Ascendant, the Force-worshipping cult who created the thought dowser seen in the previous […]
Tokiyuki Hojo’s main antagonist may be charismatic (and possibly demonically possessed) warrior Takauji Ashikaga, but he gets an acceptably devious stand-in with Sadamune Ogasawara. He’s the governor of Shugo Province and has a major beef with Tokiyuki’s benefactor Yorishige Suwa. So Sadamune decides to crash a dog-shooting competition (it’s not as bad as it sounds…) […]
Edward M. Pressler is the supervillain known as EMP. His claim to fame is that he blacked out Gotham City five years ago with an electromagnetic blast he generated from within his own body. EMP spent the next five years in a sensory deprivation tank at Arkham Asylum, until tonight when the order was given […]
Hayao Miyazaki is internationally famous because many, if not all, of the anime films he has directed are certifiable classics. In addition to these films, the man also found time to create the greatest work of comics ever made, “Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind,” over a twelve-year period. While I’ve recommended a lot of […]
Vader made his opposition to the criminal organization known as Crimson Dawn clear in the previous volume. Now he’s out to purge its influence from the Empire and restore order to it along the way. He’s going to need some help in order to do this. By “help” I mean expendable assets who are willing […]
The reasoning behind which Mignolaverse titles get the hardcover treatment becomes easier to identify if this volume is any indication. All spinoff titles that don’t have Mignola’s direct involvement or aren’t part of an ongoing storyline arrive in softcover. Everything else gets the hardcover treatment. Why? My guess is that it’s down to declining sales […]
It’s the second round of testing for First-Class Mages, and it’s being devised by a… pacifist? Sense, the proctor of the exam, is also someone who has never had anyone pass one of her tests before. Which sounds strange when you consider that this one has the relatively straightforward goal of just having to make […]
Marshall went on an odyssey through time and space to save his best friend in the previous volume. Something like that should have earned him a little positive karma, right? The universe thinks otherwise and we find out that he’s still trying to put his life back together after the unintentional six-week disappearance he had […]
The last time we saw Thor, he was reckoning with the death of his father… and the fact that his father’s spirit was now inhabiting Mjolnir. Things weren’t going well either for Hulk as Bruce Banner had turned his alter-ego’s personality into a rage-powered energy source that allowed him to leave Earth and smash his […]
The titular organization is made up of some familiar faces to the Mignolaverse, Sir Edward Gray and Sarah Jewell chief among them, who met in a London pub late in the 19th Century to discuss supernatural goings-on around town. It’s these adventures that Simon Bruttenholm has decided to educate his nephew Trevor and his adopted […]